What we do when we work together: Ongoing insights in our Art/CS collaboration
Lindsay MacDonald, iLab, University of Calgary & HCI Centre, University of Birmingham
Jo Vermeulen, HCI Centre, University of Birmingham
In this talk, we will discuss our ongoing collaborative work addressing the design, and process of design, of an interactive floor installation. This is a story of a collusion of our research areas with the hope of creating something of mutual benefit, that is to say, results we can publish in HCI venues as well as exhibit in the media art community. First, we frame this in the context of Lindsay’s interdisciplinary art practice and PhD research, which deals with examining people’s interactions with each other and technology in everyday liminal spaces (or in-between spaces), such as elevators, train stations, and staircases. We then discuss the intersections with Jo’s research in using interactive floor displays to provide feedback, discoverability and guidance for proxemic interactions. Together, we investigate making use of existing surfaces in liminal spaces (i.e. the floor) to transform people’s experience of the space. For example, visualizations on the floor could be used to encourage people to reflect on the way they move through these spaces and interact with others (or not). Finally, we talk about the benefits and challenges we’ve experienced in our interdisciplinary collaboration.
About Lindsay MacDonald
Lindsay is a PhD candidate in the Computational Media Design Interdisciplinary Graduate Group at the University of Calgary in Canada, co-supervised by Sheelagh Carpendale and Jean-René Leblanc. Her approach to research and creative production combines methodologies from computer science, design and art. She is interested in investigating creating site specific interactive art installations liminal places, along with the design and interaction challenges inherent in the process. Additionally, she is examining and documenting processes and practices in interdisciplinary art/computer science collaborative projects.
About Jo Vermuelen
Jo is a Research Fellow at the HCI Centre of the University of Birmingham. He received a PhD in Computer Science from Hasselt University in Belgium, working with Karin Coninx and Kris Luyten at the EDM HCI group. His PhD dissertation investigated how to design for intelligibility and control in ubiquitous computing environments, to help users understand what is happening and allow them to intervene if necessary. Previously, he also worked on facilitating the design and development of multi-device (and cross-device) user interfaces. Currently, he is interested in supporting intelligibility and addressing interaction challenges with proxemic interactions, including providing discoverability, feedback and feedforward.